Ice Queen
by MortiferSB
Summary: In which a suicidal Taylor turns Brockton Bay into a winter wasteland.
1. Chapter 1

Tattletale watched the storm.

It had started a few minutes ago, and just kept growing and expanding. Already, it covered a quarter of Brockton Bay.

The storm had barely raged for a minute before her employer called, and ordered her to get some information about it.

_Parahuman power. Ice creation and manipulation. Powerful. Hard to control. Tied to emotions. User stressed._

The blizzard was getting closer. Tattletale reached for her scarf.

_Centre of storm at school. User stressed. Bullying._

Snow fell on Lisa's nose. She sighed. She needed to get closer, try and find whoever caused the storm.

_Storm growing rapidly. Going faster north and east. User going north-east. Heading for the Docks. Gang territory. Villains. Lung, Oni Lee, Baku-_

Tattletale shook her head. Focus. It doesn't matter who's in the Docks. The source is heading north, which was to her south, which meant she just had to find them.

Sliding on an extra sweater, Lisa walked into the blizzard.

To say it was cold would be an understatement. Despite multiple layers of clothing, Tattletale felt colder then she had been her whole life.

Everything was freezing around her.

_Blizzard growth rate slowed. User stopped moving._

Huh. The source had stopped?

Then the roaring started.

That's not good.

Tattletale began running.

As she ran, the noises began. More roaring, swearing, gunfire, sounds of fighting.

Someone had found the source.

It didn't take long for Lisa to get there too.

A huge, hulking ice golem smashed it's fist into Armsmaster, sending him flying. Miss Militia stood stood near where he landed, firing explosives at the golem. The golem battered the explosive to the side, and it blew up harmlessly in the snow.

Armsmaster stood up, and ran around the golem whle it was distracted, heading for...

_Girl. Fifteen years old. Parahuman. Source of blizzard._

The girl whipped her hand, and some ice emerged from the ground, trapping Armsmasters arms between two spears of ice each.

_Could be lethal. Isn't. Holding back._

The golem roared, and Miss Militia dodged a thrown snowball twice her size. Her weapon morphed again, and she fired a jet of flames from a flamethrower.

_Doesn't want to kill. Doesn't want to stop._

Why was the girl doing this?

_Pushing ther heroes. Wants to die._

Tattletale stopped.

_Wants to die. Wants to be remembered._

Oh.

_Pushed to far. Bullying. Held back power after Trigger. Let it go after further bullying. Suicidal._

No no no no no no.

If the girl died, Lisa would be the only person who would know why. That's bad. She couldn't let her die without people knowing why. Not like him.

Armsmaster broke free of the ice, and ran at the girl.

The girl pointed at him, and a bolt of ice struck him in the heart.

The hero fell to his knees. Miss Militia broke off from fighting the golem to help him.

The two talked for some time outside of Lisa's hearing range, before backing off.

Tattletale took the chance to look at the girl.

_Brown her. Glasses. White skin._

That should be enough to identify her.

Tattletale turned to leave.

She had to find out about her. Find out who she was.

She had to help her.

* * *

"Armsmaster." Said Emily Piggot. "Miss Militia. What happened?"

Miss Militia answered. "We ran into the girl who made the storm. As soon as she saw us, she attacked."

"She made some sort of construct." Added Armsmaster. "A giant made of ice."

"And she was able to make ice out of nowhere." Finished Miss Militia. "She almost impaled Armsmaster a few times before we retreated."

Piggot sighed. "Is there anything else?"

"The girl wasn't wearing a mask." Said Armsmaster. "Or a costume. Just a dress."

"She didn't seem to have any goal." Suggested Miss Militia. "As far as I can tell, she was doing it for the sake of doing it."

Director Piggot thought on this for a second. "We're going to have to bring her in." She said, gesturing to the snow outside. "Someone with this much power going on a rampage is disastrous. Armsmaster, go find the Wards. Miss Militia, stay here. and help me identify this girl."

The Tinker nodded, and left.

Just before he left the building, he ran into Velocity and Dauntless.

"Hey." Called Velocity. "Armsmaster. What's up?"

Armsmaster hid his irritation. "I'm going to get the Wards, so we can stop the girl causing the storm."

"Have they assigned a name to her yet?" Asked Dauntless.

"Not that I am aware of." Repled Armsmaster.

"Didn't she give you a name to call her while she was kicking your ass?" Asked Velocity. "Or was she giving you the cold shoulder."

Velocity chuckled to himself. Armsmaster glared at him.

"Well." Said Dauntless. "I suppose you shou..." He trailed off.

"What." Demanded Armsmaster.

"Uh... Your hair's going white."

Armsmaster frowned, and checked his reflection.

A strand of hair on his head gone white.

"Are you okay?" Asked Dauntless. "If you're getting stressed or anything-"

"I'm fine." Interrupted Armsmaster, walking out.

He didn't have time for this. There was a crisis going on. It's not like his hair was going to kill him.

* * *

Arcadia was covered in snow. Pretty much all of Brockton Bay was, at this point.

The Wards were standing out the front, most of them wearing multiple layers of clothing. Vista and Clockblocker were throwing snowballs at each other.

"Sir!" Said Aegis, who was just in his normal uniform.. "What's the situation."

"High-level Shaker." Responded Armsmaster. "Miss Militia and the Director are trying to work out who she is."

"She?" Asked Clockblocker, dropping a snowball. "Is it just me, or are all the powerful capes here all chicks?"

Gallant turned to look at him.

"I mean, think about it. Vista, Panacea, the new girl..."

"Shut up." Said Vista, pegging a snowball. "We have a job to do."

"Speaking of Panacea..." Interrupted Aegis. "Where did she and Glory Girl go?"

"Went home." Replied Gallant. "Victoria texted me. They were going to meet up with the rest of New Wave. Regroup. Which I guess is what we're doing."

Armsmaster nodded. "We need to go by Winslow to get Shadow Stalker, then get back to base."

The Wards nodded, and they left.

* * *

If Arcadia was covered in snow, then Winslow was frozen solid.

The majority of the doors were blocked with ice. Vista was able break most of it, but when they came to a room filled with people, she was useless.

Kid Win walked forward, covering his face with a scarf, and drew one of his ray guns. The people behind the ice cleared the way, and Kid Win fired.

After a few minutes later, the ice had been sufficently reduced enough for Aegis to smash it apart.

The students rushed out, followed by the teachers. Most of them ran for the exit. Shadow Stalker remained behind.

"Aegis, Kid Win, Vista, go check if there's anyone else." The three Wards nodded, and left. Gallant stayed behind, looking at something on his phone.

"Shadow Stalker." Said Armsmaster. "What happened here?"

Shadow Stalker shrugged. "Some Hebert girl was getting bullied, she snapped and froze everything."

Hebert. So that was her name.

"That's everybody." Called Aegis, a few minutes later. Armsmaster nodded.

"Back to base." He said. "Wait for further orders."

And maybe warm up a bit. Even with the multiple layers over his costume, Armsmaster was starting to get cold.


	2. Chapter 2

"Have I ever told you I hate snow?" Asked Kurt. "Because I hate snow."

Danny looked away from the snow-blocked doorway, at his friend.

"Especially when it snows us in like this." He continued. "And ruins any chance we had of getting anything done today. Or of getting home."

"Nothing we can do about it." Replied Lacey. "Now help me move this snow so we can get out of here and get out of here. Shovel's are over there."

Danny and Kurt grabbed a shovel each, and began moving the snow in the door.

"Freaking Parahumans." Said Kurt. "And there's no way this isn't a Parahuman doing this, so don't act like you don't know what I mean."

"Protectorate should be stopping this." Replied Danny.

Kurt snorted. "Yeah, just like they did with Nilbog- Oh, wait."

"There's still people here." Countered Lacey. "Think everyone was dead by the time anyone responded to Ellisburg."

"And doesn't that just fill you with confidence." Kurt muttered.

"We have Parahumans in the city." Danny pointed out. "I'm sure they'll notice this."

Kurt shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Better hurry up though. People are going to get hurt at this rate."

"Don't even know how we're going to be able to go anywhere with this storm." Agreed Danny.

"Speaking of the storm." Started Lacey. "Looks like this is almost everywhere in Brockton Bay. You think Taylor's alright?"

Danny's grip on the shovel tightened.

"I hope she's okay." He said. "There's a shelter near Winslow. If things get too bad, she'll be there. If not, she'll be home."

"What if something happens to her?" Asked Kurt.

Danny didn't answer.

The three shovelled for almost a minute before they heard the engine.

"Bout time someone sent help." Mutter Kurt.

The engine came to a stop near the door, and the three began hearing voices.

"Okay, maybe he's here."

"This is the fifth place, Tattletale. The boss is going to get annoyed if we take too long."

"Trust me, he has to be in one of these buildings."

"Who are they talking about?" Asked Lacey.

Kurt shrugged. "Dunno."

"Okay, Bitch, get to work!"

There was a grumbling outside the door, before the snow started giving way.

"They work fast." Danny remarked.

It only took a minute or so for the outsiders to move all the snow out of the door.

The first thing that Danny, Kurt and Lacey saw were three extremely large dog-like things.

"Jesus, those are big." Whispered Lacey.

Then a whistle came from behind them, and the three dogs trodded back, revealing what was behind them.

Four teenagers sat around a plow truck, each one wearing a costume.

"Alright." Said a blonde girl in a black and white costume. "Which of you is Danny Hebert?"

Danny stepped forward. "That would be me."

The girl nodded, and a tall boy with a skull mask stepped forward.

"You two!" He called out to Lacey and Kurt. "We cleared a path to some cars on our way here. Get going."

"Hang on." Said Kurt. "Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter." Said the skull boy. "Just go."

Kurt and Lacey paused for a bit, then followed the cleared path, around a corner.

"You realise that they're just going to stay there and eavesdrop, right?" Asked a boy with a white mask and crown.

The blonde girl shrugged. "Let them. They'll want to know what we're doing with their friend."

"I'd like to know if I was them." Interrupted Danny. "Or if I was me, for that matter."

"Of course." Replied the blonde girl. "My name is Tattletale. I'd like to talk to you about your daughter."

* * *

Tattletale was used to hiding things from people. She'd had a lot of practice.

Right now, she ws hiding a lot of things.

Anyone watching her would think she was rather calm about the situation. Inside, she was panicking.

She didn't have much of a plan. Get Danny Hebert, get through storm, and talk to Taylor was all she had, and it had so many ways of going wrong.

Someone else could get to her, and indulge her suicidal wish. Taylor might not listen to them. She might accidentally kill someone, and have to deal with the consequences of that.

And then there's the question of her boss. He would be expecting her to inform him of what she had discovered, and Lisa had no idea what he would do with that information.

But...

She couldn't just do nothing. She hadn't done anything for her brother. She couldn't let someone else slip through. Not while she could do something.

The plow truck was starting to get cramped, with Grue, Bitch, Regent, Danny and Tattletale herself. Bitch's dogs were running alongside the truck, enhanced with the girls power.

Grue was driving the truck, Bitch was watching her dogs, and Regent was fiddling with his phone.

"I still find this hard to believe." Said Danny. "This... I know my daughter. She's stronger then this."

_Angry. Blames himself. Trying to convince himself that it's a lie._

"Everyone can break." Replied Tattletale. "I don't know what happened, but-"

"I would notice, wouldn't I?" Demanded Danny. "If Taylor was going to do... that."

"I-" Lisa begins, but she cuts herself off.

_Emotional. Not logical. _

Logic wasn't going to work here.

Lisa didn't want to say it. Not really. But she needed to prove to Danny that she wanted to help.

"I never noticed." She whispered, looking down. "With my brother. He killed himself years ago, and I never even found out why."

For a moment that seemed to drag on forever, everyone was quiet.

"I-I'm sorry." Said Danny. "I didn't know."

"Nobody does." She replied. "I never told anyone before."

"Why are you telling us now, Tattletale?" Asked Grue, turning away from the road.

"Because I need to do this." She replied. "I saw her. I can stop her. I wasn't able to do anything for my brother, but I can do something now. But you-" She gestured to Danny. "-Won't trust me if you don't know why."

"Tattletale-" Began Danny.

The girl took off her mask.

"Call me Lisa."


End file.
